The first paper of this issue, “A Strategy Map of Balanced Scorecard in Academic Institutions for Performance Improvement”, by P L Umayal Karpagam and L Suganthi, delves into the importance and application of the balanced scorecard. The importance of this performance evaluation tool was highlighted by many authors in the past. Most of this research, however, was restricted to business organizations. In this paper, the authors have proposed a strategy map for an educational institution. They have explained how value is created by linking tangible outcomes to intangible resources. The tangible outcomes, mostly having financial implications, depend on how well an institution defines the measures under each of the four perspectives— financial, customer, internal process and learning and growth. The success of the model depends on identification of measures and objectives under each perspective. The authors suggest that the balanced scorecard can be a very useful tool even for academic institutions so that there is a clear vision of accountability and performance measurement.

The second paper, “Relationship Between Entrepreneurial Orientation and Business Performance: A Review of Literature”, by Sandeep Vij and Harpreet Singh Bedi, tries to put together literature on Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) and business performance. The authors have explained, by citing prior literature, the development of entrepreneurship theory and emergence of the EO construct. Three models—the construct model, the EOstrategy model and the performance model—were identified as the lines of research on EO. The paper reviews a range of publications describing the methodology, findings and alternative approaches to study the performance model. It suggests that a strong EO results in high business performance. EO is a multidimensional construct operationalized in terms of variables such as ‘innovativeness’, ‘risk-taking’, ‘proactiveness’, ‘autonomy’ and ‘competitive aggressiveness’. According to the literature, a combination of subjective and objective measures of performance should be used for its accurate assessment. Also, it is suggested that different organizational and environmental elements should be introduced as moderating and mediating variables while studying the relationship of EO with performance.

The third paper, “The Battle of Private and National Brands: Strategies to Win a Losing Battle Against the Private Brands in India”, by A Shivakanth Shetty and Manoharan, looks at how private brands are competing with more established national brands in India. Once considered inferior due to their poor quality, private brands (labels) have now taken center stage in most modern retail formats. By adopting value pricing, better quality through upscaling, high safety standards, customized packaging, differentiation and leveraging the brand equity of the retailers, the private labels have significantly grown over the last decade around the world and India as well. This sudden surge of private labels in India has necessitated a new strategy paradigm for the national brands which are increasingly facing a tough situation of eroding market share, dwindling profits and increased hostility with the retailers, who were once their loyal customers. The authors take the examples of three modern retailers—The Future Group, Bharti Retail and Aditya The IUP Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. IX, No. 6 3, 2012 Birla Retail—to illustrate how in different product categories these formats have clearly positioned their private labels closer to the national brands and have done it profitably. The authors have proposed a framework by citing existing literature as to how the more established national brands can take on the private labels by continuous innovation and value offerings.

The final paper, “Change and Competitive Advantage: An Investigative Study of Indian Pharmaceutical Industry”, by J K Sharma and A K Singh, highlights the influence of dynamic capabilities on firm performance. Previous studies have sufficiently looked at how firms use dynamic capabilities by sensing and seizing opportunities and reconfiguring assets to maintain competitiveness. One of the constituents of dynamic capability is adaptive capability, and the ability to change has been termed as a firm’s adaptive capability. In the literature, it is observed that the organization’s change management capability serves as a link to learning, market orientation and corporate performance. The authors have studied, based on a sample of 216 respondents from the pharma industry, the influence of organization’s change capability and its mediating role in driving corporate performance. Besides, measuring the influence of change capability, the authors have also measured the influence of knowledge management, learning and innovation and combinative framework on corporate performance. The authors have also discussed the scope for future work in this area.

-- Venu Gopal Rao
Consulting Editor